Viterbi algorithm for detecting DDoS attacks

Distributed denial of service attacks aim at making a given computational resource unavailable to users. A substantial portion of commercial Intrusion Detection Systems operates only with detection techniques based on rules for the recognition of pre-established behavioral patterns (called signatures) that can be used to identify these types of attacks. However, the characteristics of these attacks are adaptable, compromising thus the efficiency of IDS mechanisms. Thus, the goal of this paper is to evaluate the feasibility of using the Hidden Markov Model based on Viterbi algorithm to detect distributed denial of service attacks in data communication networks. Two main contributions of this work can be described: the ability to identify anomalous behavior patterns in the data traffic with the Viterbi algorithm, as well as, to obtain feasible levels of accuracy in the detection of distributed denial of service attacks.